Quotes from Ernest Cline

SQUID technologies

I actually switched to a third-person view for a few seconds, just to admire how cool my avatar looked wearing it.

I understood her, trusted her, and lover her as a dear friend. None of that had changed, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation.

She grinned and shook her head. "Chaotic Neutral, sugar.

I also absorbed the complete filmographies of each of his favorite directors. Cameron, Gilliam, Jackson, Fincher, Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg, Del Toro, Tarantino. And, of course, Kevin Smith.

Aquello me hizo preguntarme si Hawking también habría participado en la gran mentira de la ADT. ¿Y Neil deGrasse Tyson? Si Carl Sagan estaba metido en el ajo, era probable que otros científicos importantes también.

But these were real aliens we were fighting—sentient beings with highly advanced technology, intent on destroying us. And we were outnumbered thousands to one. We should've been dead a hundred times already. Were humans really just better at war than they were, or all this time, had the aliens been throwing the game?

My mom once told me that my dad had given me an alliterative name, Wade Watts, because he thought it sounded like the secret identity of a superhero.

But we also figured out how to do science, which helped us develop technology.

Playing old videogames never failed to clear my mind and set me at ease. If I was feeling depressed or frustrated about my lot in life, all I had to do was tap the Player One button, and my worries would instantly slip away

I never ran out of ammo, because each time I fired a round, a new round was teleported into the bottom of the clip.

He wasn't dead!

Several Sonic the Hedgehog games involved a quest to collect seven "Chaos Emeralds" that could be harnessed to obtain special powers. Inside the OASIS, dozens of different quests on Mobius Prime allowed you to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, and I'd completed all of them. But if there was a way to trade the emeralds for one of the shards, I still hadn't discovered it.

Mr. Morrow, IOI owns this network.…" "Of course they do!" Morrow shouted gleefully. "They own practically everything! Including you, pretty boy! I mean, did they tattoo a UPC code on your ass when they hired you to sit there and spout their corporate propaganda?

I stepped inside, closed the door, and locked it behind me. Then I made a silent vow not to go outside again until I had completed my quest. I would abandon the real world altogether until I found the egg.

She did it to get the extra food vouchers from the government every month. Most of the time, I had to find food on my own.

I watched every episode of The Greatest American Hero, Airwolf, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Misfits of Science, and The Muppet Show.

When the IOI corporate police came to arrest me, I was right in the middle of the movie Explorers (1985, directed by Joe Dante). It's about three kids who build a spaceship in their backyard and then fly off to meet aliens. Easily one of the greatest kid flicks ever made. I'd gotten into the habit of watching it at least once a month. It kept me centered.

Space—First coin-op arcade game—port of Spacewar!

Star Trek? Oh, I did my homework. TOS, TNG, DS9. Even Voyager and Enterprise. I watched them all in chronological order. The movies, too. Phasers locked on target.

first aid kit

Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Pink Floyd.

It's the year 2044, and the real world has become an ugly place. We're out of oil. we've wrecked the climate. Famine, poverty and disease are widespread.

We talked for hours. Long, rambling conversations about everything under the sun. Spending time with her was intoxicating. We seemed to have everything in common. We shared the same interests. We were driven by the same goal. She got all of my jokes. She made me laugh. She made me think. She changed the way I saw the world. I'd never had such a powerful, immediate connection with another human being before.